The present invention relates to the field of maintenance. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems for and methods of managing aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul.
Aircraft maintenance occupies a key position in airline operation because such maintenance is essential to the safety of passengers and the reliability of airline schedules. Each aircraft has its own maintenance requirements which are designed to keep the aircraft in an airworthy condition. These aircraft maintenance requirements typically originate from the aircraft's manufacturer, and can be revised throughout the life of the aircraft by the aircraft manufacturers, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and/or the Maintenance Review Board (MRB). Additionally, maintenance personnel may, under certain circumstances, change the schedule of these requirements by “escalating” or extending the interval at which a maintenance task is accomplished.
These aircraft maintenance requirements are documented in aircraft-specific MRB documents. An MRB document details each task that must be accomplished on a particular aircraft, the requirements of that task, and the frequency with which the task must be performed. The MRB document includes tasks that need to be accomplished anywhere from once a day to once every 20 years, as well as tasks that need to be accomplished after the aircraft has achieved a specific number of flight hours, flight cycles or other triggering aircraft use metrics. For most major aircraft types, the MRB document lists somewhere between 800 to 2,000 different tasks.
The MRB document details a very complicated maintenance schedule. To ensure compliance with the MRB document, airlines must implement various tracking programs to monitor for the dates when tasks come due, as well as to log the completion of those tasks and any corrective actions taken.
Because an aircraft produces revenue only when it is flying, it is essential for airline management to keep maintenance time at a minimum. Thus, airlines commonly group tasks together (into letter-checks) rather than perform the tasks one at a time as they come due. Letter checks commonly include “A checks”, “B checks”, “C checks” and “D checks”, with A checks occurring most frequently and having the fewest number of tasks. A and B checks typically can be performed overnight in a “line maintenance” environment, in which, assuming no complications arise, the aircraft typically loses little or no flight time. In this environment, the aircraft remains airworthy because it can be reassembled quickly. Conversely, C and D checks comprise a greater number of tasks, many of which require a substantial amount of time to complete. Thus C and D checks are typically performed in a heavy maintenance environment in which the aircraft is taken out of service. In this environment, an aircraft is taken into a hangar, where it is taken apart, inspected, fixed and reassembled during the course of one week to over a month.
Aircraft maintenance, whether line or heavy maintenance, is a costly, labor intensive and complex process. Airlines therefore often outsource much or all of their aircraft “maintenance, repair, and overhaul” (MRO) to third party companies. Because of the high cost of aircraft maintenance and generally low airline margins, the airlines commonly select MROs, as they are commonly known, based in large part on cost. Airlines also commonly switch from one MRO to another if a lower cost option presents itself. These factors combine to produce a low margin and highly competitive aircraft MRO industry. MROs are therefore persistently in need of solutions that will increase their efficiency, which in turn may act to drive down costs and increase profit margins.